Bolsonaro Bows to Pressure and Agreed to Bring Back Ministry of the Cities and Integration

President Jair Bolsonaro gave in to pressure from parliamentarians and agreed to rebuild the ministries of cities and national integration after the dismemberment of the current Ministry of Regional Development.

The decision was taken this morning in a meeting of the president with the Minister of the Civil House, Onyx Lorenzoni, and the leader of the government in the Senate, Fernando Bezerra Coelho (MDB-PE), rapporteur for the provisional measure of administrative reform and which will contemplate the changes.

“This is the great news of the report,” Bezerra Coelho said in an interview he gave after meeting with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes.

The senator said that this does not mean that there will be another ministry in the Esplanade – would be 23 – because, if approved the project that guarantees autonomy to the Central Bank, the Bank will lose ministry status and thus would remain the current 22 ministries.

The rapporteur, who wants to vote in the special committee on Wednesday, said that he had informed Guedes that the union registration will leave the Ministry of Justice to go to the Ministry of Economy. The head of the Economy wanted this assignment to be in the portfolio of Justice.

Another point that Bezerra stressed in his opinion is that he will also keep the Financial Activities Control Council (Coaf) at the Ministry of Justice, as announced the day before. He said, however, that this point could be approved by a tight tab on the committee, as there are parliamentarians who advocate that the Coaf be in the Ministry of Economy.